VTrak Ex10:
Vtrak E-Class x10 series made for Mac units auto negotiates to “N” port when the topology is set to “Auto”.
When this is the case, the FC switch will report “F” Port. This is required in order to insure proper controller Fail Over / Fail Back functionality with non ALUA host OS’s.
To recap: Ex10 series made for Mac does not support ALUA thus the default “Auto” setting on Vtrak. The FC switch will negotiate “N” port.
VTrak Ex30:
Today Vtrak E-Class x30 series made for Mac auto negotiates to “NL” port when the topology setting is set to “Auto”.
When this is the case, the FC switch will report “FL” Port. Vtrak “Auto” defaulting to NL port setting is correct and will properly support ALUA and non ALUA Host OS.
N port is acceptable if the host is non ALUA, how ever make sure the controller setting on the Vtrak is set to “LUNAffinity=Enable,ALUA=Disable” Reference the following KB on how to set LUN Affinity and ALUA settings via CLI:
http://kb.promise.com/thread/how-do-i-enable-or-disable-alua-on-sr2-6-firmware
With NL port it can support “LUNAffinity=Enable,ALUA=Enable” or “LUNAffinity=Enable,ALUA=Disable” (supports both).
Any customers running Brocade DCX series FC switches in Mac OS Lion (ALUA aware): NL setting is a must.
N port setting will function and is acceptable for Non ALUA environments.
